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JOURNALS // Moscow Mathematical Journal // Archive

Mosc. Math. J., 2011 Volume 11, Number 3, Pages 439–461 (Mi mmj426)

This article is cited in 6 papers

Periodic trajectories in the regular pentagon

Diana Davisa, Dmitry Fuchsb, Serge Tabachnikovc

a Department of Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
b Department of Mathematics, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
c Department of Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

Abstract: We consider periodic billiard trajectories in a regular pentagon. It is known that the trajectory is periodic if and only if the tangent of the angle formed by the trajectory and the side of the pentagon belongs to $(\sin36^\circ)\mathbb Q[\sqrt5]$. Moreover, for every such direction, the lengths of the trajectories, both geometric and combinatorial, take precisely two values. In this paper, we provide a full computation of these lengths as well as a full description of the corresponding symbolic orbits. We also formulate results and conjectures regarding the billiards in other regular polygons.

Key words and phrases: periodic billiard trajectories, regular pentagon, Veech alternative, closed geodesics, regular dodecahedron.

MSC: Primary 37E35; Secondary 37E05, 37E15

Received: February 5, 2011

Language: English



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